Formula 1 Gearing Up For IPO And Singapore Exchange Listing?

We first heard rumblings that the commercial rights to the highest echelon of motorsports, Formula 1, might be for sale early last year, and then just last month reports broke that the sport’s largest equity holder, CVC Capital Partners, was considering launching an initial public offering (IPO) for F1 and listing it on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Latest reports indicate that CVC is in talks with two major investment banks, Morgan Stanley and UBS, to help underwrite the IPO, which could be valued at up to $3 billion.

This would make an F1 IPO one of the biggest in history though it’s well short of the $10 billion previously hinted at by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

The latest information was revealed to Bloomberg by two people familiar with the matter.

They said that CVC has already enlisted the help of several other banks, including Goldman Sachs, and that an application for the IPO may be submitted as early as this week. This would mean that the IPO may occur by June.

Listing the IPO on the Singapore Stock Exchange would appeal to F1’s growing fan base in the Asia Pacific region. Singapore is competing with Hong Kong to cement its position as the dominant stock exchange in Asia, and it’s also trying hard to brand itself as a destination for the ultra-wealthy.

No matter what happens, Ecclestone has previously stated that he plans to keep his own 5.3 percent stake in F1.